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Although legal marijuana continues to spread across the great American landscape, the federal government still maintains a strict no-tolerance pot policy for members of the US military. However, with the recent passing of initiatives to legalize weed in Alaska, Oregon, and Washington DC, the commanding forces behind our national defense has been forced to reiterate to its soldiers that the consumption of cannabis could result in court martial.

To ensure the military does not employ the use of stoned soldiers, the federal government mandates that all service members submit to regular drug testing. Yet, documents obtained by The Washington Post through the Freedom of Information Act indicates that many troops could be high as hell and no one would ever know because not every solider is being tested for weed.

At Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state, where the recreational marijuana industry is in full swing, around 25% of the soldiers were not tested for pot in 2014, according to the Post. Yet, unfortunately, the troops stationed in Fort Carson, Colorado did not receive the same leniency. Records show that all 26,000 men and women on active duty were tested for marijuana this year.

While the data reveals fewer soldiers are getting busted for pot than in years past, there is nothing in the documentation to determine just how frequently these drug tests occur. Yet, apparently it does not matter, as Army officials claim that just knowing the possibility exists for a drug screen is enough to keep the majority of the armed forces pissing weed free.

“The results of our continued drug testing demonstrate the commitment soldiers have to the Army profession, regardless of a state’s legalization of marijuana,”

“With 98% of the Army population testing negative for illicit drugs, soldiers demonstrate their ability to take responsibility for themselves, reinforcing the fact that our drug testing program is working.”

It is for this reason that US military officials say there are no plans to ramp up the drug testing polices in legal marijuana states.

Do yoh think the U.S. Army Officials should rmp up the drug testing? Leave a comment above..

Shannon Smothers-Wansley joined Mississippi’s latest marijuana legalization push for her grandmother, who passed away in September 2011 after battling dementia, which took away her appetite.

“If she had access to something with cannabis in it, she would not have died of starvation,”

Smothers-Wansley told the Jackson Free Press.

The potential of cannabis as an appetite stimulant is among the key arguments from proponents of rolling back legal restrictions for marijuana for its medicinal purposes.

However, opponents of legalizing, or decriminalizing, weed point to the fact that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration does not recognize cannabis or its extracts as a medicine. And despite the growing number of states and cities that have decided to start looking the other way when it comes to small amounts of recreational marijuana, the federal government continues to define marijuana as a Schedule-1 drug on the same level as heroin and cocaine.

But advocates in the Magnolia State hope that the momentum toward legalization, which is bolstered by the presence of the nation’s medical marijuana farm at Ole Miss, has made Mississippi more 420 friendly.

Last week, organizers of a statewide ballot initiative to legal and decriminalize, submitted language for the measure with the Mississippi secretary of state.

The proposal would end the prohibition on cannabis and fully legalize the use and taxation of marijuana for adults over age 21. Recreational users could have nine or fewer marijuana plants for their personal use. The state would classify anyone with more than nine plants as a cannabis farmer, required to pay an annual $25 fee to the local municipal or county. Prospective dispensers would have to pay $1,000 for a special license. Additionally, a state sales tax of 7 percent would be charged on all sales with the exception of medical marijuana and industrial hemp.

Going to the Mile High City was the perfect 65th birthday present for Karen Stevenson. She and her husband drove out of the Bible Belt to experience, for the first time, what it’s like to buy and smoke weed legally.

She wore a T-shirt featuring an image of María Sabina, a late-Mexican shaman, puffing on a joint — a shirt that, until this day, she never dared to wear outside her Cape Girardeau, Missouri, home.

“It’s kind of like being a part of history,”

she said Saturday, while waiting for a bus in front of a marijuana-themed sandwich shop. “I used to want to go to Amsterdam. Now I don’t have to.”

The Origin of the Term 420

The Stevensons are among the tens of thousands of visitors — by some estimates 80,000 — who’ve come to Denver to mark 420 (April 20), a date that’s emerged as a holiday among those steeped in cannabis culture.

Weed and a Tale of Two Cities.

Though the date has long been observed in Colorado, this is the first celebration since recreational sales of marijuana on New Year’s Day. (Recreational use became legal in late 2012.)

Replete with the Denver “420 Rally” in Civic Center Park, the High Times Cannabis Cup — an expo and a competition sponsored by the magazine — and a 420 concert at Red Rocks Amphitheatre headlined by Snoop Dogg, the weekend has drawn the trappings one might expect. Dreadlocks. Tie-dye. T-shirts brandishing phrases like “Cheech & Chong for President.”

Those predictable, or stereotypical, images, however, only tell part of the story.

They don’t speak for the white-haired Mississippi man who looked like he’d walked out of a law firm on casual Friday. They don’t reflect what drew a Crohn’s disease patient from Missouri. Nor do they represent three older Texas women, one with her nails perfectly manicured in hot pink and her hair done just so, who advocate on behalf of seniors and are working to reform marijuana laws.

Three states, one district, and two cities will vote on various aspects of the nation’s drug laws on Tuesday but the most crucial marijuana decision being weighed in the coming days will be made by just one person. U.S. District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller could be about to start a legal revolution.

After a five-day hearing in California, she is considering the validity of the science surrounding pot’s classification as one of the most dangerous drugs in the world.

In May, she became the first judge in decades to agree to hear evidence relating to the Drug Enforcement Administration’s classification of marijuana which puts it in the same category as heroin and meth. Over the next few weeks, Mueller will comb through hundreds of pages of witness testimony, scientific research, and public health policy to determine whether the Schedule-1 Substance classification of marijuana is unconstitutional.

Her ruling will only apply in the specific case she is hearing, but some argue that a first judicial ruling against the legality of the DEA’s current drug classifications would invite a flood of similar legal challenges all over the country.

The case in question concerns six men who were charged with growing marijuana on national forest land. It dates back to three police raids in the Northern California town of Hayfork on October 3, 2011 conducted by two local narcotic task forces in tandem with the United State Forest Service (USFS) and California Highway Patrol (CHP). They confirmed what the agents had been suspecting for years: there was a massive grow operation hidden in the depths of the Shasta-Trinity National Forest.

Over the course of several days, police arrested 15 suspects and uncovered more than 500 marijuana plants, 1,000 pounds of processed cannabis, eight firearms, and more than $35,000 in cash.Brian Pickard and Bryan Schweder, the two owners of the land, were pinpointed as the leaders of the operation, according to witness testimony and law enforcement officers.

Facing a variety of drug charges ranging from possession of marijuana to cultivation, the men face upwards of 10-15 years in prison. Nothing especially unusual thus far, but then the defense counsel argued that such tough legal sanctions should never have applied to marijuana in the first place.

Much to everyone’s surprise, Mueller agreed to grant an evidentiary hearing on marijuana’s classification.

Her decision was based on a tiny footnote written by U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Stevens in 2005. In the medical marijuana case of Gonzalez v. Raich, he wrote:

“We acknowledge that evidence proffered by respondents in this case regarding the effective medical uses for marijuana, if found credible after trial, would cast serious doubt on the accuracy of the findings that require marijuana to be listed in Schedule I,”

it reads.

“Respondents’ submission, if accepted, would place all homegrown medical substances beyond the reach of Congress’ regulatory jurisdiction.”

Do you think it should be labeled a schedule-1 substance? Leave a comment above.

The crop is still an infant food industry in North America, after being legalized and adequately regulated in the late-1990s. However, it is appearing in an increasing number of human food and nutritional products.

Uduslivaia said hemp is well-positioned to grow.

Hemp protein, pea protein and brown rice protein have found a growing demand in the protein products area, which was once dominated by men and weight lifters. The revival of protein as a positive food element has allowed its market to expand beyond muscle-focused men to include young, health-conscious women.

Many women are keen to consume non-meat and non-dairy protein, so “alternative proteins” such as hemp are being included in more products.

“We … see a move away from milk-based protein,”

said Uduslivaia.

“Whey protein used to be the king of proteins, but this is no longer necessarily the case.”

Hemp is also moving into the dietary supplement and functional food markets because of its heart-healthy reputation and claims.

Hemp can claim heart-healthy properties because of its omega oil content, but Uduslivaia said an interesting development is the growing success of products that don’t push a particular benefit, instead presenting themselves as generally healthy.

The cross-functional benefits are often more attractive to consumers than a single-function approach.

Functional food sales have suffered in the last few years in North America, stagnating and even falling in some areas after strong growth in earlier years.

However, dietary supplements have been booming.

“It’s the dietary supplements that are seeing significant growth and are outpacing, in terms of growth, foods,”

said Uduslivaia.

Hemp is a small crop and has only a small share of the market, but Uduslivaia said it is on the right side of almost every trend. Alternative protein, non-animal, generally healthy products are all growing in popularity and demand.

Gone are the days of leading our children to believe that marijuana is as useless and harmful as heroin or crystal meth. Nowhere will that be more apparent than at this year’s McDonald’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in Chicago.Good Intentions Medical Marijuana Services will be the first legal marijuana related business to join the ranks of well-known, established businesses in the parade’s 80 year history.

“It’s time to give up on the argument that marijuana has no known medical value”

explained Good Intentions founder and CEO, Tammy Jacobi.

“Now is the time to educate our children that there are many substances people can use to treat their debilitating conditions and medical marijuana is one of them”

With an emphasis on education and advocacy, Good Intentions has become a trusted name in medical marijuana services in Illinois and in Michigan. Good Intentions services include physician coordination and referrals, fingerprint background checks, official state forms assistance and verification of state required documentation. Jacobi added

“I am profoundly moved that our company continues to make a difference in patient’s lives. We’re also very proud of The State of Illinois for the hard work and dedication they’ve contributed in order to bring this program to life.”

Good Intentions Thanksgiving Day Parade float will emphasize the company’s history of “growing” with Illinois through the process of licensing medical marijuana patients. The float will feature a 12 foot banner with the theme “Growing With Illinois” and will be complete with a garden of flowers in bloom. According to Jacobi,

“just as plants grow and flower, the company has blossomed into an organization that provides hope for the most seriously ill citizens of Illinois. And when it comes to our children, let us not forget the shrewdness of Thomas Jefferson -Honesty is the first chapter of the book of wisdom.”

A company based in Waterloo, Ontario is building a hemp-based, hemp-fuelled aircraft that will have a much smaller carbon footprint than standard planes.

Derek Kesek plans to be flying on cloud 9 in the world’s first hemp plane next year!Kesek revealed at first people laughed when the former organic restaurant owner said he was going to build a plane made out of hemp.

“Can you smoke it, too?”

they asked jokingly.

“But, they’re not laughing at me now,”

the environmental activist told reporters last month.

Last month his Waterloo-based company, Hempearth, signed a contract with a Florida-based plane manufacturer to build an aircraft made almost entirely out of hemp.
A member of the cannabis plant family, hemp is a tall, green and leafy plant with a strong fibrous and thick stalk. It is used to make clothing, soap, rope, oil, food, construction materials and now, planes!
Kesek truly believes his hemp aircraft could revolutionize the world. —

“just like Steve Jobs did with his phones.”

“Because hemp is a versitile and sustainable crop that requires no pesticides or herbicides to grow, the plane would have a significantly smaller carbon footprint than that of standard planes.” he said.

“We are building this essentially from weeds from the garden. When nickel and other elements are taken, they can’t be put back.”

At least 75 per cent of Kesek’s plane — including its wings, seats, pillows and outer shell will be made from hemp, instead of fibreglass.
The four-seater jet will be the colour of natural hemp fibre, with a wingspan of 36 feet (12 metres).

Do you think Derek could be on to something?? Leave a comment express your thoughts.